Disabled individuals, particularly those with arthritis, often encounter difficulty when donning and removing clothing. These difficulties are in large part due to the strength, range of motion, and dexterity required to attach and detach hooks and eyes and to manipulate zippers, buttons and the like. For most people, dressing and undressing is an everyday occurrence that requires little time and thought. However, many disabled persons find the task of dressing and undressing both time consuming and difficult. Brassieres, in particular, present problems for disabled women. In general, a conventional brassiere may be characterized as having three main components. The first component is a pair of cloth cups designed to encircle or partially encircle a woman's breasts. The second component relates to some form of a support system to hold and lift the breasts by providing requisite force on the cloth cups via shoulder straps or otherwise. The third component, a torso encircling band, is added to prevent the cups from sliding or "creeping" up over the breasts as a result of this upward force. This band, generally elastic, is secured to the bottom of each cup and serves to anchor the brassiere to the wearer's midriff region, holding the breast cups in place. The torso encircling band of conventional brassieres wraps around a person's chest connecting in the front or the back with a series of small hooks and eyes. Those who lack coordination or cannot grip a strap using both arms have extreme difficulty securing the brassiere in place.
Over the past century, countless innovations in brassiere design have been both patented and commercialized, many having in common the sometimes mutually exclusive objectives of providing improved breast support, appearance and comfort. Some are adapted for the needs of women who engage in athletics or who require a bra suitable for wear with strapless, low back or backless apparel. Some are designed for the full figured woman or for less endowed women desiring to enhance their natural appearance. Still others are designed to reshape the breast in a manner believed to be fashionable for a respective time period. Despite the large number of brasserie designs available on the market and disclosed in the prior art there is a remarkable absence of support garments designed to meet the special needs of the disabled.
Conventional brassieres for the most part are ill-suited for the arthritic and the otherwise disabled. Some efforts have been made to design brassieres to meet the special needs of the disabled. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,441 issued to Lois Rudolph in 1972 discloses a brassiere with an adjustable elastic shoulder support system fitting around the back of the wearer's neck like a halter top. Rudolph's brassiere also includes a torso encircling band formed by two solid, but flexible, curved stays each attached to one breast cup and extending around one side of the wearer's torso securing the brassiere in place. In 1979 U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,568 issued to Charles Blankmeister for an improved torso encircling band. The design includes a long draw strap for cinching the band around the wearer's torso. The draw strap passes through two rings. The rings are attached to the opposing sides of the brassiere that pass around to the wearer's back. When the brassiere is in place, the user, with either hand can pull the draw strap, cinching the two sides together in the back.
In 1989 U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,866 issued to Harold Hull for a brassiere design incorporating loops below the breast cups on the front of the garment and a draw strap attached to the torso encircling band in the the back. The wearer, slipping the garment over her head, inserts her thumbs into the loops to pull down from the front and then reaches behind grasping the draw strap to slide the garment into place. Francine Rainville received two patents for a front opening brassiere designed for a handicapped person, specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,651 issued in 1988 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,104 issued in 1990. Rainville's design provides a series of loops allowing a wearer who cannot grip to pull on the loops drawing the front of the brassiere together.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,634 issued to Rosie and Tonya Brown in 1998 for a brassiere designed for an arthritic woman. Their design includes detachable shoulder support straps and a torso encircling band formed by two body straps that cross over each other and pass around the wearer's body below her breasts to attach either in the front or in the back. The shoulder and body straps use Velcro to allow the wearer to more easily remove the garment.
Unfortunately, many disabled women have no, or extremely limited, mobility in one or both arms. While the designs described above provide some limited benefits for many disabled women, none allow a woman to easily slip on, adjust, and later remove a brassiere using only one arm.